


I Don't Want To Impose

by Ghostinthehouse



Series: Demon and Angel Professors [77]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Ableism, Ableist Language, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Disabled Crowley (Good Omens), M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23876173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/pseuds/Ghostinthehouse
Summary: Two abled students came storming round the corner in pursuit of Sue, and obviously decided that 'nasty Dr Crowley' would back them up...One-shot
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Demon and Angel Professors [77]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412962
Comments: 42
Kudos: 1222
Collections: Aspec-friendly Good Omens





	I Don't Want To Impose

Crowley braced a discreet hand against the wall to take some of his weight until his knee got its wretched act together and supported him long enough to get across the wide hall and into his greenhouse, where he could sit down. Crawling was technically an option here, but - his gaze flicked to the few students within view - he'd never live it down if he did. Aziraphale was busy on the opposite side of campus, so no help on that front. He'd just have to manage.

He was just about to try anyway, when three students came round the corner, the latter two storming after the first, who he recognised as Sue.

The latter two glanced at Crowley and obviously decided that 'nasty Dr Crowley' would back them up. One said, "She's a faker! I saw her stand up!"

Crowley turned a little, cocking his hip up to reduce the weight on his bad leg still further, and leaned against the wall. Sue had gone pale around the lips, and her eyes had a hunted expression in them for a moment before she braked her wheelchair to a halt in the middle of the hall and dropped her gaze.

He snapped, "Standing up is no indication of being able to walk far or easily." His glare, fueled by the pain in his own knee (perfect case in point, he noted inside his head. Here he was standing, and not up to so much as crossing the hall easily) blazed so fiercely it could almost have set them on fire.

The pair of students backed off hastily, as he ripped verbal shreds off them in the process of tersely explaining that needing a wheelchair and being able to move your legs or even use them a little were not mutally exclusive categories. He finished, "Don't make me have to come over there and tell you close up." The tone was even more vicious than the glare he gave them. They quailed under it and backed up several paces. Then when he started to straighten away from the wall, glare only growing harsher, they fled, leaving Sue parked alone in the Hall.

Sue took a shaky breath, and swallowed. Was he going to tell her off for getting caught out as an ambulatory wheelchair user? Tell her that she should have been more careful, complied more to expectations...

He swallowed himself, and most of the glare vanished the moment the pair were out of sight, leaving only a harsh look deepening a harsh face.

She suddenly noticed the way he stood hipshot, almost all of his weight on one leg, and the hand braced discreetly against the wall, and was very glad the students hadn't called his bluff.

He said, "You ok?"

She remembered the first time they'd met, and managed to nod rather than thank him. "I'll live. Are you ok?"

The corner of his mouth ticked up just a fraction. "I'll live," he quipped dryly back at her, and for a moment the look they shared wasn't between student and professor but between two disabled people.

"It's ok if you touch my wheelchair handles," she murmured. She didn't usually encourage that. Too many people thought it meant they could do what they chose to her wheelchair, as if it wasn't an extension of her body.

An eyebrow went up. "I don't want to impose," he muttered back.

She said shortly, "You're not," and saw some of the tension ease from his shoulders. He crossed behind her, while she sat parked in a way that he would always have something to grab as he went. The chair shifted very slightly as he put some weight on the handle, and then he was safely over.

He gave her the slightest flicker of acknowledgement, just a touch of a grateful smile that would have stunned and astonished most students, and vanished into the greenhouse.

Sue watched him go, then set off down the hall again, slightly lighter of heart.


End file.
